Facebook’s new advertising policies will “undermine journalism and its role as the fourth estate and legitimize anti-journalism narratives around the world,” said seven media publisher groups Monday (see 1805180058). They asked Facebook to exempt news organizations from the new policy for labeling and archiving political advertising. The American Society of News Editors, News Media Alliance, Society of Professional Journalists and others asked that "all of our advertising is treated as general advertising and is not placed into the political category by the mere fact that it mentions politics or issues." The platform is “working to treat advertised news content differently in the archive, which addresses our news partners’ fundamental concern," responded Head-Global News Partnerships Campbell Brown. "An exemption or whitelist would directly negate the new levels of transparency we’re trying to achieve.”
Northwest Broadcasting channels are back on Charter Communications's lineup after the two signed a carriage agreement Thursday that ended a more than four-month blackout (see 1802060052), Northwest CEO Brian Brady emailed Friday. El Centro, California, which pursued litigation and an FCC complaint against Charter (see 1804260003 and 1803210031) said Friday it is still deciding how it will proceed. The operator, which pursued litigation against El Centro (see 1805110057), also didn't comment. In a docket 18-cv-00679-AJB-PCL filing (in Pacer) Thursday in U.S. District Court in San Diego, Charter said El Centro's motion to dismiss the MVPD's suit is mistaken in arguing the court lacks jurisdiction (see 1805250020). Charter said that it's based in Connecticut is more than enough to show diversity of the parties, and it said the El Centro citations it's fighting threaten its state-issued franchise, worth far more than the jurisdictional minimum.
Amazon continued its Alexa migration Thursday, launching the Fire TV Cube, described as a “hands-free 4K Ultra HD streaming media player with Alexa” that lets users control TV from across a room. Thursday's announcement gave top billing to Netflix, Amazon’s rival in streaming video. A product description said: “Simply ask Alexa to navigate and control content in popular apps, including Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, ESPN, FOX NOW, SHOWTIME, STARZ, PlayStation Vue, CBS All Access, and NBC.” Cube uses multi-directional infrared technology, cloud-based protocols and HDMI CEC, which -- combined with Alexa -- lets consumers control a compatible TV, sound bar, AV receiver or set-top box, it said.
Apple, which has wanted to be a change agent in TV for years, may now have that route with Charter Communications' Spectrum TV app integration in Apple TVs (see 1806040058), letting Apple "take complete control of the television experience," nScreenMedia analyst Colin Dixon blogged Tuesday. He said the partnership also could boost sales of Apple's flagging streaming media player, Apple TV.
All VidAngel needs to do to survive a motion to dismiss is plausibly allege a boycott of secondary filtering companies like itself, which is exactly what VidAngel did before a U.S. district judge, the appellant company said in a docket 17-56665 reply brief (in Pacer) filed Friday with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. VidAngel is appealing a lower court's 2017 tossing out of antitrust claims against the studios for refusing to deal with it (see 1802140016). VidAngel said though filtering is "an obviously lucrative market," that studio appellees never licensed any streaming filterer is evidence that such collusion "has destroyed the streaming filtering industry." It said that studios putting forth their own plausible explanation doesn't render the allegations implausible. Outside counsel for the appellee studios -- Disney, Fox and Warner Brothers -- didn't comment Tuesday.
Savant added music and smart home features, it said Monday. The 8.8 software release includes the new Savant Music 2.0, supporting music streaming services Spotify, Pandora, TuneIn, Tidal and Deezer. The redesigned iOS app added control screens for cable, satellite and streaming video services.
The FCC Media Bureau granted two unopposed market modification petitions by Harrison County, Texas, to make KFXK-TV Longview and KLTV Tyler available to satellite subscribers in the county, said an order in dockets 18-24 and 18-25 in Monday’s Daily Digest. “For historical and geographic reasons, residents in the County generally receive only Louisiana television stations, limiting their access to Texas-specific news, sports, weather, and politics.”
Netflix's ongoing investment in original movies and nontheatrical releases could ultimately reshape the motion picture industry, with global streaming arguably more economically favorable than the theatrical release model, Barclays' Kannan Venkateshwar emailed investors Monday. Simultaneously releasing films theatrically and across other windows could be a means for some companies, like Disney, to drive streaming growth, Barclays said: The market also could split into two types of cinematic releases -- big movies needing to get bigger to justify the cost of theatrical releases, and small movies that go direct to consumers via streaming services. The analyst said the line between movie and TV content is "becoming a lot more fungible," and ultimately, vertically integrated entities like Disney could benefit, though theatrical distributors will face headwinds akin to TV cord cutting.
The Federal Election Commission should let the advertising industry establish an indicator-based online ad system, TechFreedom said May 25 in comments on two agency rule proposals (see 1805250032 and 1805290037). The FEC should also “check in after each of the next two elections to see what real-world data say about users’ understanding of the indicator icons and associated wording,” said TechFreedom President Berin Szoka. The organization pitched the proposal as a bipartisan compromise with “trust but verify” safeguards to earn the support of skeptical Democratic commissioners.
Content company Lionsgate bought majority ownership of production company 3 Arts Entertainment, they said Wednesday. They said 3 Arts -- responsible for such TV series as 30 Rock, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and American Vandal -- will continue to operate under the direction of its partners.